What Motivates A Female Suicide Bomber?

O’Rourke proposes an interesting theory that many female suicide bombers
are in fact operating out of very traditional instincts. They want to
restore gender norms that they have somehow violated. They are, she
writes, "women who realize they have deviated, intentionally or
unintentionally, from the gender behavior norms of their society and
may feel pressure to reaffirm a connection to it." They have lost their
rightful place by being raped, or divorced, or infertile, or failing to
get married, and bombing restores them to a place of honor in their
community. Female suicide bombers, for example, tend to be a few years
older than their male counterparts, and past marrying age. One failed
Palestinian bomber O’Rourke profiles, for example, is 35 and
tomboy-ish, maybe even transgendered. When asked what motivated her,
she said, "Who would want to marry someone like me?"

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